DID YOU KNOW?
• Between Thanksgiving and New Years Day, Americans take an additional 25% of waste to the curb. That amounts to over 25 million tons of trash for the holiday season.
• If every family reused just 2 ft. of ribbon from holidays past, that would save 38,000 miles of ribbon — enough to literally tie a big bow around the entire planet.
• 2.7 million holiday cards are sent across the country too — that’s enough to fill an entire football field 10 stories high!
SO, WHAT TO DO?
Fill your recycling cart with:
• Corrugated cardboard boxes (flatten it out to fit more!)
• Gift boxes
• Catalogs
• Newspapers and all of those advertising inserts
• Wrapping paper (non-metallic only)
• Non-metallic greeting cards
HOW TO TRIM YOUR “WASTE-LINE”
• BYOB-Bring your own (shopping) bag.
• Send e-cards this year.
• Avoid gift wrap — just decorate the box. The comics pages makes great wrap for kids.
• Decide what catalogs you want, and rid yourself of the rest.
• Opt out of all 3rd Class mail lists — write to the Direct Marketing Association at P.O. Box 9008, Farmingdale, N.Y. 11735-9008.
• Opt out of credit card junk mail offers by calling 1-888-5OptOut.
• For shipping, use real popped corn (no butter) to protect fragile items, and tell your gift recipient to feed the birds once opened. Donate those … Styrofoam peanuts to your local packaging store.
• Rechargeable batteries and a charger are better choices to power those electronic goodies.
• Compost your trees and wreathes or buy a tree with roots, and transplant it. Don’t know what to get someone? Plant a tree in their honor!
• Go homemade with cookies, funky vinegars in saved wine bottles, or hand-knitted scarves and mittens.
• Skip packaging altogether with gifts of massage, sporting events, babysitting, dog walking or tickets to the museum. Always think about the packaging! If you can’t recycle it, buy something else instead!
• Holiday lights all in a bunch? HolidayLEDs.com will accept your old, incandescent Christmas lights, which will then be recycled. Be sure to ask neighbors and friends if they want to recycle their lights as well. You can reduce waste and shipping costs by sending all lights in one package.
• Did you get some great new things? Appliances, clothes, gadgets, cookware? Well, chances are great that you have some “less-new things” that would make a lot of people pretty happy. Donate them to your favorite charity or non-profit.
Reprinted with permission from RecycleBank.
Julia Wasson
Blue Planet Green Living
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Rewards for Recycling
I know your kind. You recycle. You care about the planet. You might even be a tree hugger. You don’t want to dump things in the landfill if there’s a way to extend their lives for another go. But not everyone can be bothered. If the environmental mess we’re in isn’t enough to motivate them, what will?
That’s one of the questions Ron Gonen had to figure out while developing the business model for his innovative, young company, RecycleBank.
We talked with Gonen by phone from his office in New York City.
Workers drop off a RecycleBank container. Photo: RecycleBank
BPGL: How does RecycleBank encourage people to recycle?
GONEN: We reward your home for the amount that you recycle. We sign a contract with your city and provide every home with a large, wheeled and lidded recycling cart. Embedded in each container is a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip. When the truck picks up your recycling, we read the chip, weigh the contents of the cart, and wirelessly credit your account with RecycleBank Points.
You keep those Points in your account until you’re ready to spend them on over 900 rewards. The Points, and the rewards they can buy, are the motivating factor that gets people to recycle as much of their household waste as possible.
BPGL: What types of items can a RecycleBank customer purchase with their Points?
GONEN: We have different offers for each location, depending on the currently participating local and national sponsors. At any given time, a customer has at least 100 ways to spend their Points. A couple of examples from our website are a free YoBaby Organic Yogurt for 50 RecycleBank points or $2 off a purchase of $5 or more from Kiss My Face products.
We also have an option for people to donate their Points to schools for projects dealing with the environment. The RecycleBank Green Schools program helps kids in RecycleBank-serviced areas to become the next environmental stewards of the planet.
BPGL: Many cities already have a recycling program. Why might they want to partner with you?
GONEN: Their goal is the same as ours: to keep all recyclable materials out of the landfill. We can help with that by motivating people to recycle as much as possible.
BPGL: Who pays for the containers?
Residents leave their containers for curbside pick up. Photo: RecycleBank
GONEN: Generally, the city will buy the containers or we retrofit existing containers with our scanable chip. We also retrofit the city recycling truck with a mechanical arm that picks up the container, reads the chip, and records how much each household has recycled.
BPGL: If there’s no cost to the customer, how does RecycleBank make money?
GONEN: For every ton we motivate people to divert from the landfill, we earn money. The city has a figure for how much tonnage they sent to the landfill in the previous year. We measure the amount of recyclables collected weekly or daily, and then we do a true-up at the end of the year.
Whatever tonnage we divert over and above the previous year represents a savings in landfill costs for the city. So, if a city recycled 1 million tons last year, and this year they are recycling 3 million tons, we split the difference between us. The city gets the benefit of saving landfill fees for the half of those extra 2 million tons. And they pay us their savings for the other half.
BPGL: Do people have to sort their recyclables before putting them in the cans?
GONEN: No. We pick up recyclables in a single stream — meaning that everything is commingled in a single can; there’s no separating needed. But we can do dual-stream [also called “multi-stream”] pickups if that’s what a city needs.
Or, if cities are interested in going to a single-stream process, we have a number of partners that we can work with to help them get there.
BPGL: How well is the program catching on?
GONEN: We’re in 15 states. The first country we’ll expand to is most likely to be the United Kingdom. That could happen in Q3 or Q4 of 2009.
RecycleBank containers are mechanically lifted and dumped. Photo: RecycleBank
BPGL: Is RecycleBank a nonprofit?
GONEN: No. We’re a for-profit business backed by venture capital. We’re showing people that you can be green and successful.
BPGL: What can people do to get RecycleBank in their city?
GONEN: Call your mayor. Say, “If we increase recycling participation, we will save our city money. There’s a program that can help us do that. And it will put money in our pockets and into the local economy.”
BPGL: What are you doing with the materials, now that there’s not much of a market to sell them?
GONEN: It is very closely tied to the economy. The reason the backup happened is that prices have set record highs in recycling for the last 3 years, now that the economy is bad, the prices have gone down.
You have to take a four-year view. The last four years, people made an absolute killing. Recyclers didn’t want to sell at low prices, so the materials are starting to back up. If they don’t sell the materials, they have to dump it in the landfill. How much are you paying to dump the materials and how much will it cost you to take them to the facility? That’s the complete story.
Prices dropped in last few months, but there were record-high prices the last four years. Most facilities contract the sales of their materials for 5 years. The contracts set a price ceiling and a floor. If the price shoots up, we benefit. If it drops, no one gets killed.
Some recyclers have been burned and hurt by the recent drop in prices. But most big players and those that did their contracts properly are stable.
BPGL: How long do you think it will be before the prices become more stable?
GONEN: Recycling tracks consumer confidence closely. If consumers aren’t buying at Wal-Mart, there’s no need to make so many boxes. As the economy returns, recycling will return. With a change of administration, there will be a boost in confidence. I don’t know what Obama is planning to do. Our business model is not dependent on aid from the federal government in any way. The last 8 years could not be any worse in terms of commitment to the environment. A simple change in administration focused on the environment will be good for us, because that’s what we do.
Ron Gonen, CEO of RecycleBank
BPGL: What was your motivation for starting an environmental company?
GONEN: I’ve always had an interest in social policy and the environment. I started the first recycling program in my high school — a great high school called Germantown Academy in Philadelphia. We were using plastic silverware in the cafeteria. Through our student government, I got us to change to metal silverware so that we wouldn’t constantly be throwing stuff out. It was a little bit of a struggle, but there was a lot of support for it, and we made it happen.
I also started a program on hunger and homelessness for high school students. We hosted other high school kids from all over country. They came for three days to learn about hunger and homelessness.
Most of my life people said I was too idealistic.
BPGL: What do you recommend to today’s students who have an interest in the environment?
GONEN: The world’s going to be a very different place from an energy perspective in the next eight years. Try and focus on businesses and ideas that are going to make a difference over the next 3 to 8 years. Don’t get caught up in conversations around what to do to reduce greenhouse gases in 2035. Find things that make a difference today; that will lead you down a path to find employment.
Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)
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Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Love is Green
What Joe and I like most about this venture of ours is the fascinating people we are fortunate to meet. We learn something from each of them, and our lives are enriched.
This morning we interviewed an amazing guy, a lifelong surfer who also happens to be an ecopreneur (you’ll meet Harry Johansing in a future post). When we asked him one of our favorite end-of-interview questions about what we all can do to help the planet, his first response was “Love.” Before you jump to conclusions, he wasn’t being flip. He meant it, and we were touched.
Love is green
During the recent political campaign here in the U.S., Joe kept telling me that candidates should have to tell the people how they support love. “The candidate that has love for the people, the environment, and the world should be the one who wins,” he said. Okay, I admit, I looked at him with more than a little skepticism. It’s not the kind of thing a political candidate could espouse in the U.S. without getting laughed off the platform. But maybe it shouldn’t be that way. Maybe we need to hear our leaders tell us that they love more than just themselves and their families, that they love their people and our fellow humans and the world that we share.
What we’re noticing is that the people we interview are truly full of love — for the planet, for their families, for their gardens, for animals, for people. Love is what motivates them to do what they do. Yes, they want to make a living. Without a reasonable expectation of paying the bills, perhaps they wouldn’t have the courage to choose the more difficult path to be an ecopreneur or to live sustainably.
Jill Schutts and Ely
We’re reminded of Jill Schutts and her son, Ely. Jill stands at her kitchen window and basks in the beauty of the goats she raises. But what really motivates her is the wish to provide the best-possible life for her son by Pursuing the Dream of a Sustainable Life.
Jeanne Freymiller kept thousands of pounds of usable fabric out of the landfill by teaching others how to quilt and make things from fabric. That’s love. And now that Jeanne has died, the love of friends like Peggy Schmidt is making sure the Legacy of a Green Artist and Dreamer is carried on.
Kurt Friese
Kurt Friese believes mightily in eating locally grown foods. We’ve known him for some time, and he is all that his book implies. We loved how Kurt Friese Shares His Passion for Slow Foods in a New Book (and I learned something about the wisdom of short titles after that one was published). Kurt, his wife, Kim, and their restaurant staff fed my daughter’s love of cooking when she volunteered as a dishwasher just so she could learn from them. Their Iowa City restaurant, Devotay, exudes that same love of nutritious, tasty, local foods that he writes about.
Mary Somerville and organic hops
Jessica Klein loves her garden. Kevin and Mary Somerville love their farmland. Both have a fondness for vermiculture — Jessica in a single bin, and the Somervilles on a grand scale. Their passion has inspired readers who also are passionate about gardens and worm farming (see Ranching Underground Livestock). (Now Joe wants to put a bucket of worms in our kitchen…)
Kevin Somerville telling about their organic fields
You’ll read in a future post about our new friend, Bob Packard, whose worm farming adventures led him to volunteer in a gardening program for inner-city youth. He loves what he’s doing, and “the students have gone from ‘Yuck!’ to ‘Wow!’” as they, too, are becoming fond of worms.
Though I may not have mentioned the others in this post, every single one of the people we have written about and will feature in the future is filled with passion. If they’re not, no matter what enterprise they’re engaged in, they don’t interest us. Where there’s no passion, no love, there’s no real story.
Karen Ande and Kenyan orphans
A couple of days ago, we posted our first Premier Sponsorship. AndePhotos might not sound, on the surface, like it’s an enterprise that’s “organic,” “green,” or “natural.” So why do we think Karen Ande belongs on our website? Because we believe the work she does to support children orphaned from AIDS in Kenya is as “natural” as it gets. Through proceeds from her nature photography and the photos she takes of the orphans, she is helping provide a sustainable life for children whose futures have been all but ripped apart. Her photos touch our hearts.
Sabrina Potirala, Contributing Writer
We also want you to know about the volunteers who are responsible for bringing you many of the stories we post. Most are college students, writing about green living in ways that are meaningful to them.
Emmalyn Kayser, Contributing Writer
Others are a bit more “seasoned,” sharing the perspectives gained over a longer life. Some have specialities, such as Veterinarian Doreen Hock, who recently wrote to encourage pet owners to take a Holistic Look at Vaccinations. All are motivated by love of the earth and its inhabitants. They are eager to make a difference, in whatever way they can, to make the world a healthier place for themselves and for generations who will come after them. Please get to know our Contributors, for their passion also inspires us.
Our families, too, support us, in ways too numerous to count. They are our ultimate loves. And, fortunately for us, they understand and share our love for the rest of the world.
Belinda Geiger, Contributing Writer
Soon, we’ll be bringing you original Blue Planet Green Living videos. Our goal is to engage viewers with humor while passing on important content that you can really use. Joe has the vision, the passion, and the knowledge.
The BPGL video crew: Aaron Render, Justin Mangrich, and Jake Mathias
But without our dedicated team of volunteers (whose profiles will appear under Contributors once our first video is posted), this creative project would never materialize. Once again, college students and other young people (young to us, anyway) are selflessly giving their time to this project. Their dedication and passion have kept us going through disappointing technical issues like a new camera that refused to talk to the editing program we purchased. (Yes, we’re learning things every day.)
And so, I’m getting to the final point of this post about love. Last night, we purchased a Panasonic camera on line. Joe and I were working late, preparing a post for today (which you’ll now see tomorrow), when the phone rang. It was 10:30, not a time our phone often rings except in emergencies. On the other end was an effervescent voice, an inquisitive person who wanted to know more about Blue Planet Green Living, to whom she had just sold her camera. We instantly bonded. Her interest in our mission was genuine. And when we learned about her own important work, we all felt there was a greater reason we met than to transfer ownership of a camera.
Amy Louise Williams and friends
Amy Louise Williams is an Emmy-winning documentary producer. She has a passion — a love — for people and the environment that she shares through her work. We plan to tell you more about Amy as time goes on. But today, we want to introduce you to her through a short promo for a PBS video that we are posting on our home page. What does Amy’s video about the children in The Road to Matveevka have to do with things “organic,” “green,” or “natural”?
Like Karen Ande’s photos, Amy’s video introduces us to children who may never have the luxury to think about how to make the earth a better place. They are the forgotten children of Ukrainian orphanages, children whose futures are all but sealed to a life of crime and prostitution and sometimes suicide. They, too, are part of this planet we love so much. We don’t pretend that our website can solve the incredible problems that they face, but we want to shed a bit more light on the issue in whatever way we can.
To us, and to other environmentally minded people, saving rain forests and sea turtles and song birds and whales and all of nature is important — essential, in fact. But we must not lose sight of the urgency of caring for our fellow humans. Please take a look at Amy’s video, then look inside your heart. We think you’ll understand why we found this so important to share.
I’ve called this post “Love is Green.” That might sound a bit simplistic. Love comes in all colors, after all. What I mean by this is that we can share our love for people, for animals, for the beauty of nature, for each other, in fact, by making this planet a better place for all to live. The changes we need to make take money, time, and commitment.
We have a choice. We can each love “locally,” focused only on what directly affects us, or we can reach out with love to others we’ve never met and will never get to know. We can reach into the future by Living Green today, leaving the world a healthier place for the generations that come after us. But let’s not forget to also reach across borders, to make the world a safer place for our fellow travelers on this Blue Planet.
Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)
Green Living Pet Care: A Holistic Look at Vaccinations
In recent years, a growing number of parents have expressed concern about the immunizations they’re being told to give their children. Their fears include side effects from the sheer number of vaccinations and from the vaccines themselves. By challenging the status quo, these parents have caused some in the scientific community to re-examine accepted practices and initiate further research in the quest for a safe immunization protocol for all children. But who is advocating for pets?
Your pets count on you for safe care. Photo: Doreen Hock, DVM
If your veterinarian follows drug company recommendations, you probably have your pets vaccinated every year to prevent disease. But, in my opinion, that’s not beneficial to the health of most companion animals. For most pets, the greater danger lies in over vaccination.
Drug companies — the funders of drug efficacy studies — have only been required by the government to prove that the duration of immunity they claim is true. In other words, if they say a vaccination is good for one year, they must prove that animals are protected from that illness for one year.
But they’re not required to determine the potential time a vaccination could actually protect an animal from disease. So they arbitrarily pick a time frame, study whether the vaccine is effective for that time, then make their claim.
Is it in their interest to study whether a vaccine can protect a pet for a longer term? Let’s put it this way, if they were to tell pet owners that a vaccine is good for two years instead of one, that would cut their profits in half. And claiming longer efficacy would slash their sales even more.
In veterinary school, we learned that vaccinations were good for companion animals. We never dreamed they could cause harm. Yet, in the past ten years or so, vets have been reporting an alarming number of tumors forming at the vaccination site in cats.
When we started realizing that the tumors were associated with vaccinations, suddenly people wanted to reevaluate how often they should vaccinate. Immunologists chose three years as the arbitrary period of effectiveness, with recommendations to do titers to test whether a vaccine is still able to protect the pet after that. As long as the pet is protected, it doesn’t require a booster.
Unfortunately, few veterinarians are testing animals for immunity; they’re simply following the drug companies’ recommendations. But the holistic veterinary world is challenging the old beliefs.
It’s widely known in veterinary medicine that rabies and distemper vaccines create tumors in many dogs and cats. In Oregon, where I practice, these vaccines are required only every three years in an adult dog, and not required at all for cats. This may not be the case in other states, and each pet owner should follow the law in their own state, territory, or country.
CATS
Indoor cats are not likely to be at risk for rabies. Photo: Doreen Hock, DVM
Rabies is a zoonotic disease, meaning it can cross from other animals to humans. If not treated early, rabies is fatal in humans and always fatal in cats and dogs. In my area of the U.S., rabies is very low risk. If a cat stays indoors at all times, there is virtually no way for it to contract the disease. In Oregon, a cat would have to catch a rabid bat and be bitten by it before catching rabies. Most cats don’t fight with rabid skunks, so the risk of rabies is low.
From a Health Department perspective, however, the concern is that cats can easily transfer rabies into the home. If rabies is prevalent in your area, then rabies is a vaccine you’d choose for your cat. You and your vet should talk about it.
The distemper vaccine covers four viruses, including those that attack the upper respiratory system, as well as distemper. In cats, distemper is a lifestyle disease. In cats, distemper is a relatively rare disease. Unless you live in an area where distemper is present, I don’t recommend giving a vaccine not likely to be needed — especially when three additional, optional vaccines are included. I call these “optional,” because the upper respiratory viruses are not considered fatal.
Indoor cats that live in homes are generally safe from catching distemper if they live where no other animal has had the disease in the past year. The exception is cats living with people who work in animal shelters, kennels, or catteries, because people can carry the disease on their hands. Another way to catch distemper is through fleas and other insects, so be sure to vaccinate a cat if insects are a problem.
It’s a good idea, on the other hand, to vaccinate an outdoor cat or one that is likely to be exposed to other animals.
Outdoor cats are at greater risk for disease. Photo: Julia Wasson
Feline leukemia is similar to the human AIDS virus and is transmitted through bodily fluids. It causes immune suppression, resulting in cats easily acquiring other diseases. Feline leukemia is especially common in wild cats and cats that are sexually active. The disease is transmitted sexually, through mother’s milk, and through wounds sustained when fighting with an infected cat. The decision to vaccinate should be based on an evaluation of your cat’s lifestyle and if it is in the high-risk category.
At our clinic, we test kittens to see if they have acquired leukemia from their mothers. If they are outdoor cats that might fight with strays, then a leukemia vaccine is a good idea. For indoor cats, the vaccine is unlikely to be necessary. Similar to a healthy human living with someone infected with HIV, a healthy cat often can live with a leukemia-positive cat without contracting the disease.
DOGS
Puppies definitely need to be vaccinated. Most veterinarians give a 5-in-1 vaccine called a DHLPP (distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis, parvovirus, and parainfluenza). But I don’t give the “H” (hepatitis) or the “L” (leptospirosis). This is controversial; your veterinarian may not agree with me.
Puppy shots are essential for good health. Photo: Julia Wasson
Some dogs in Oregon get leptospirosis, but often they’ve already been vaccinated. In most cases, the “L” in the vaccine doesn’t give adequate protection, because the street virus is mutated from the strain in the vaccine. Also, part of the vaccine is left out because of side effects, so it does not provide complete protection for the animal. In my opinion, the limited protection provided is not worth the risk of giving the vaccine.
Viral hepatitis is very rare in my region. In fact I have not seen any cases of it in my years as a vet. Although many resources you might find on the Internet call canine hepatitis a “common” disease in dogs, Dr. Susan Wynn, a highly respected holistic practitioner, researcher, and author, says canine hepatitis “is rarely seen today….”
So, as with some other vaccines, I consider that the risk of giving the hepatitis vaccine to my canine patients outweighs the risk of contracting the disease. If it’s a common problem where you live, however, you should discuss this vaccination with your veterinarian.
Parvovirus (parvo) is a big risk for puppies. It’s a very hearty virus that causes vomiting and diarrhea and is usually fatal without intensive treatment. The virus can live in the ground for a year. If you happen to walk where a dog with parvo vomited — even months before — you might bring the virus home to your dog on your shoe. Parvo is highly contagious, and not worth the risk of leaving your puppy unprotected by vaccination.
My recommendation is to give puppy shots, then to carefully select which boosters to give beyond that. Parvo is very rare in an adult dog — even one that hasn’t been vaccinated. In my 20 years as a vet, I’ve seen only one case in an adult dog.
Healthy animals make good companions. Photo: Doreen Hock, DVM
Many vets recommend giving shots of the 5-in-1 (DHLPP) vaccine at 8, 12, 16, and 20 weeks. I only give the parvo and distemper vaccines, and I only give them twice, but I use a specific brand of vaccine in order to be able to give just two puppy shots. It would be a mistake not to give those vaccines.
If you live in an area where veterinarians insist on the four-shot series, and that’s your only option, then do it for your puppy, because parvo protection is so important. Then, shop around for a vet who will give only the vaccines your dog really needs.
I only give the parainfluenza vaccine with Bordetella as a kennel cough vaccine when required by a kennel for boarding. Kennel cough is not a fatal disease and, therefore, I don’t feel its risk outweighs the risk of vaccination.
Boosters
In my view, a mistake most people make is to allow vets to give their dogs yearly boosters of all five vaccines in the 5-in-1 shot. That’s a lot of vaccine. The adverse effect is that we over-stimulate the dog’s immune system. If the immune system is revved up all year, that leads to allergic reactions and possibly increases their risk of cancer. I see animals with allergic reactions all the time. Remember, unless an immunization is mandated by law, you do not have to agree to it.
I give puppies vaccinations for parvo, distemper, and rabies. Every three years after that, I give a rabies booster, as mandated by law in Oregon. At seven years, I give boosters for parvo and distemper. This is a lot less than what most vets give, but it’s a regimen I trust for most dogs in my practice. If you feel like you need more surety in your pet’s protection from contagions, a simple blood test can check the levels of immunity still present after vaccination. This test is called a titer, and many veterinarians are now offering it for people who request it.
Older Dogs
Studies in the Journal of Veterinary Medicine describe an increased correlation with serious life-threatening diseases in the two weeks following vaccinations in older dogs. Most vets vaccinate older dogs just like younger dogs. I will not vaccinate dogs over seven years (except against rabies). This is very controversial, but it’s not my opinion alone.
Protect your pets by giving them only the vaccines they need for robust good health. Photo: Doreen Hock
Veterinary doctor Ronald D. Schultz, professor and chair of the Department of Pathobiological Sciences at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Veterinary Medicine, has independently studied the efficacy of canine vaccinations. I say “independently,” because his funding did not come from the pharmaceutical industry. His findings, which were published in 2003 in the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association and revised in 2006, have been the cornerstone of new recommendations that significantly reduce the frequency of dog vaccinations.
I’m confident that veterinarians who recommend yearly boosters honestly believe that what they’re doing is the safest course of action for pets. Most vets want to do the right thing by their patients and their patients’ owners. Yet, holistic vets like myself disagree that a yearly booster shot is a wise choice for the pets that you love.
We’re not likely to have a definitive answer very soon, as there is little funding to research this question. Schultz’s work stands nearly alone. It’s difficult to find funding for such a study when nobody will make money from not doing vaccinations.
Until we have that answer, titers are an important screening method to verify whether your pet needs specific shots. According to Dr. Wynn, “Antibody titers are not going to save you any money, and they should still be done every 1–3 years, until we know how long these antibodies actually last in the blood. These annual tests will give us peace of mind, while at the same time helping to establish just how long vaccinations actually protect the average dog or cat. Knowledge of how to more safely and judiciously vaccinate our pets will save many thousands of pets unnecessary illnesses caused by our well-intentioned vaccine programs.”
In human medicine, you and I don’t get booster shots every year. We don’t get a tetanus shot more often than about 10 years, and tetanus isn’t even an effective vaccine. So when it’s time to take your cat or dog for a checkup, have a conversation to find out what your vet really thinks about yearly shots.
If your vet insists on yearly boosters for your healthy pet without testing to see if they’re needed, recommend Dr. Schultz’s work. If your vet still won’t listen, find someone who will. Your pet is counting on you.
Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Almost Green: How I Saved 1/6 of a Billionth of the Planet
I have trouble making even little decisions about how to help the environment. Say I find a mucked-up glass jar hiding in the back of the refrigerator. Should I rinse it out so that I can recycle it? Or should I toss it in the trash and save the precious fresh water it would take to clean it?
Our homes are the source of more greenhouse gas than our cars, according to Glave. Photo credit: Joe Hennager
If a small decision like that has me stymied, I can only imagine how difficult it would be to figure out how to build a truly “green” building. James Glave, author of Almost Green: How I Saved 1/6 of a Billionth of the Planet, decided to do just that. His book chronicles an amazing number of decisions he had to make and challenges he faced when trying to build a single, small building he calls an “Eco Shed.” I wasn’t far into the book before realizing I’m a whole lot less green than I thought I was.
In the first chapter, Glave recommends checking out You-Tube for a clip posted by a U.K. government agency in December 2005:Tomorrow’s Climate, Today’s Challenge. He recounts that he reflexively clicks his mouse on the You-Tube clip that haunts him and drives him to try to live a greener life:
“It’s a throat-grabbing moment, and in my mind it underscores one of the most inconvenient truths of all: increasing numbers of us connect the dots between SUV tailpipes and the hottest summers on record, but we often overlook a big bad factory right under our noses — home.”
Glave’s saga begins in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in a drafty, old house in a freezing, cold winter. He and his wife are struggling with budget considerations and long-distance negotiations to purchase a new home on an island off the western coast of Canada. After making some compromises, they purchase a medium-sized tract home with an upgrade to a larger lot and room for a garden.
While attempting to influence neighbors and friends, and lead their children into green-thinking, they are constantly embarrassed about driving their Lexis SUV, a gift from the author’s father-in-law:
“The truth is, the moment you take your life off autopilot — the moment you begin leading by example — you essentially start to tinker with the social order. First, in a kind of self-defense mechanism, some might begin holding you to a higher moral standard. Once you publicly embrace green, there’s little wiggle room for the occasional Starbucks’ latte, McDonald’s french-fry binge, or, heaven forbid — dollop of Cool Whip. (These occasional nobody’s-perfect indulgences become hypocrisies.)”
Struggling with his green dream, Glave begins to plan a zero-emissions outbuilding on their property, to serve as a writing study and guest room. The plans become complicated when he has to dismantle the carport (also a gift from the well-intentioned in-laws) in order to provide sunlight to heat his “Eco Shed” during the cold, wet Canadian winters.
Glave’s search for recycled and earth-friendly materials to build this single-car-garage-sized building, and the difficulties he faces, defy imagination. Glave takes us along on his search for each eco-friendly building material, never compromising in his determination to purchase each item as locally as possible. Because the Eco Shed is such a small project, Glave has trouble with architects, contractors, schedules, and purchases. Budget overruns, marital stress, job stress, and delays punctuate the pages.
But Glave’s building adventure is not the only issue he chronicles. His burning desire to recycle the Lexis SUV and buy a smaller, more gas-efficient vehicle keeps nagging at the edges of the story:
“Buying a tiny, sporty car would give us the vehicular equivalent of a gastric bypass operation; we’d feel fuller faster, which would naturally help curb our consumer appetites. We wouldn’t buy as much vacuous crap, I reasoned, because we’d have no way of getting it home. But most important, we’d slash that naggingly large transportation footprint.”
By the end of the book, another family member buys the Lexis, and the Glaves are free to purchase the small car. He recounts a conversation with his daughter:
“Along the way, the three of us silently took in the transportation profile of Bowen Island. Though there were a few other pint-sized runabouts on the roads, we passed several contractors’ Ram-tough megapickups, a jacked-up Ford Excursion with monster tires…
‘Hey, Dad,’ asked Sabrina, ‘remember how you said our new car was much nicer to the planet?’
‘Yeah?’
‘That sounds pretty good to me.’
‘It does doesn’t it? I feel much better about our car. Don’t you?’
‘I guess so.’
Then, a beat.
‘But what about all the other cars?’ ”
This book is entertaining, but educational in ways I didn’t expect. Who knew the single-family home was such a blight on the earth? Breaking the cycle of waste and destruction is more complicated, it seems, than just separating cans and bottles from real trash, and using canvas shopping bags at the market:
“Having stubbornly refused to compromise for the better part of a year, I now appreciate that green is more a direction than a destination. It is a relentless and private self-improvement project that will never be concluded….
“Eventually, the acceptable norms will evolve, and every one of us will discover that transformational change isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition, but rather a dog’s breakfast of compromises and personal discoveries.”
If you’re serious about living a green life and not making the earth worse than it was when you came here, this book is for you. It’s a good read that allows you to laugh at yourself while you see how far you’ve come, then take a sober look at how far there is yet to go. Unwinding all the damage we’ve done to the earth is impossible, but we must not wait to begin trying.
UNFCCC Meets on Climate Change
Global warming is the biggest single environmental threat humanity has ever faced, because every aspect of our lives will be affected by it, according to Greenpeace USA Media Officer Daniel Kessler. “It is the chaos that is going to come from climate change that is the most fearful — that we don’t know what to expect. We have models and projections but we’re messing with a system that’s much bigger and much more complex than we could ever understand,” he said.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is holding the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) in Poznań, Poland, December 1 through 12. The goal of UNCCC is to prepare for the final Conferences of the Parties (COP), which will establish legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists almost universally agree that greenhouse gases are the major cause of global warming and that human activities are largely responsible for the excess of these gases in our atmosphere.
This is the fourteenth conference of the 192 Parties to the UNFCCC and the fourth meeting of the 183 Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, making it the halfway mark in negotiations on a future international agreement.
Without greenhouse gases, which trap heat from escaping into space, the earth would be too cold to inhabit. Yet, with the current excessive production, the atmosphere is in danger of becoming too hot for many sensitive species to survive, and weather patterns are becoming increasingly volatile.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the effects of global warming are limitless. What we do know, and can now observe, is that global warming causes extreme weather, de-stabilized local climates, disappearing glaciers, rising sea levels, higher temperatures, acidified oceans, and the destruction of certain ecosystems.
Since its initial non-binding agreement in 1992, at what is popularly called the “Earth Summit,” the member countries of the UNFCCC have been working toward establishing mandatory limits for greenhouse gas emissions. The goal is “preventing dangerous anthropogenic interference with Earth’s climate system,” according to the UNFCCC’s Article 2.
While the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro encouraged nations to voluntarily agree to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol required it. Although a member of the UNFCCC, the United States did not sign the Kyoto Protocol.
The UNFCCC is only a year away from legally establishing the ambitious global climate agreement in Copenhagen, Denmark to help combat climate change. The global climate agreement that will be established at the COP will go into effect in 2013, a year after expiration of the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol.
According to the UNFCCC Poznań – COP 14 fact sheet, parties in association with the UNFCCC will take stock of progress made in combating climate change in 2008 and map out in detail what needs to happen in 2009.
The conference will also focus on how to reduce emissions from deforestation in developing countries and will explore to what extent the Kyoto Protocol’s clean development mechanism can be streamlined and its geographical reach extended.
The UNFCCC said that the new global climate agreement will take the stabilization of greenhouse gases one step further than the Kyoto Protocol did, because it will mandate that greenhouse gas emissions be kept at a certain level.
“Emission quotas defined by the Kyoto Protocol are no longer simple numbers on paper — they are a part of real-time operation of the global carbon market,” Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC Yvo de Boer said in a press release. “We see the carbon market working and this is an important message.”
Approximately 9,000 participants will attend the two-week-long event in Poland. Attendees include government delegates and representatives of environmental organizations, research institutions, businesses, and industries.
In order to brainstorm solutions on how to combat the effects of climate change, Kessler said, Greenpeace USA sent 45 delegates and experts to offer consultation on various issues that aggravate global warming. These issues include greenhouse gases caused by deforestation, transportation, and fossil fuel consumption. Tropical deforestation alone is responsible for approximately 20% of world greenhouse gas emissions, according to Fondation Chirac.
Kessler said that Greenpeace USA is especially concerned about deforestation, because many underdeveloped countries continue to add to global warming through the destruction of their forests. “We want to give lesser developed countries incentive to keep their forests standing and developed countries incentive to help the other countries,” he said. “This will have a positive impact globally and help combat climate change.”
Other changes also must be made, however, in order to adequately reduce the effects that climate change will have. Kessler said he hopes Americans will be able to learn more about renewable resources and cleaner burning from European countries, such as Denmark, because they are more advanced in energy-efficienttechnology. “We are on our way to becoming more energy efficient — but what we really want now is for the United States to catch up,” he said.
Rescuing Architectural Treasures
You might say the Salvage Barn is a temporary refuge. Architectural castoffs from another time (or, more accurately, times) line the walls, drawers, and shelves. Even the rafters get in on the act, with a antique plow and copper rain gutters hanging high over visitors’ heads.
Useful wood from older homes fills the aisles at the Salvage Barn. Photo: Julia Wasson
Walk through the aisles, and you’ll find yourself surrounded by rescued pieces that barely escaped burial in the landfill: wooden corbels; tongue-and-groove flooring; antique light fixtures; drawers full of doorknobs; a hundred-year-old, oak staircase; and even a picket fence.
True to its name, the Salvage Barn sells architectural items that have been saved from buildings in the nick of time, before being lost forever to the wrecking ball.
The origins of the Salvage Barn date back to 1991, when Roger Gwinnup, a board member of Friends of Historic Preservation, was approached by the City of Iowa City to transition its architectural salvage operation to a local group. The original salvage operation was intended to help a low-income housing project.
Salvaged items sometimes include antiques. Photo: Julia Wasson
Gwinnup recommended that Friends of Historic Preservation take over the operation. After a year of negotiations, training and organization, the Salvage Barn opened its doors. Friends of Historic Preservation operates the Salvage Barn and salvage operations and the City of Iowa City provides the storage location.
From the beginning, the Salvage Barn focused on rescuing reusable, hard-to-find building materials suitable for use by homeowners and builders to use for repairs and additions or changes to historic buildings. The FHP operates the Salvage Barn as a service to the city of Iowa City, keeping reusable building materials out of the landfill. It resides in a large pole barn on the grounds of the Johnson County landfill.
Volunteers meet on weekends at the invitation of property owners to carefully remove pieces of architectural interest from buildings that are in excess of 50 years old. “Experienced members work along side enthusiastic newcomers to ensure that the materials are removed properly,” the Salvage Barn website says. Often, some of the volunteers are the intended recipients of the day’s salvaged goods.
Unique architectural features from the Salvage Barn add richness to the Slaubaugh-McInerny home. Photo: Shelly Slaubaugh
While Shelly Slaubaugh and Thomas McInerny were planning their new house, they wanted it to have the look and appeal of an early 20th century home. The couple helped the FHP salvage the floorboards, doors and trim from a house in Belle Plaine, Iowa. “I wanted an old house,” Shelly says, “and Thomas wanted nothing to do with the upkeep. He’s an architect, so he designed a Victorian arts and crafts house around the millwork we bought from the Salvage Barn.”
“We must have been pretty successful with the look and feel we were aiming for. We had some electrical work done recently,” Slaubaugh says, “and the inspector wanted us to place an outlet in the trim board we’d salvaged. When I objected, he asked, ‘How old is this place?’ He was very surprised when I told him it was just one year old; the walnut millwork already has a patina.”
Proceeds from the Salvage Barn assist the FHP in their mission to preserve historic buildings in Iowa City. On occasion, however, owners of an historic home in another part of the state may benefit. Nik Conner and Sal Leanhart’s home in rural Cedar County was a hotel back in the days of stagecoaches and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Conner and Leanhart had been working with the Salvage Barn, finding just the right wood pieces to finish renovating their home, when the floods came. The first floor of their historic home had to be gutted, and the wooden floorboards were a complete loss.
Reclaimed wood floor gleams in the sunlight in the Conner-Leanhart living room. Photo: Julia Wasson
When the director of FHP, Helen Burford, and Salvage Barn manager, Paul Kinney, heard the Conners’ news, they stepped in to help. The FHP donated antique wood flooring for the couple’s dining room. With the help of relatives, Conner and Leanhart cleaned up after the river’s withdrawal then removed the ruined walls and floors. They installed beautiful, period flooring that makes the room look warm and inviting.
From the Salvage Barn they also received a door for their renovated kitchen and wooden spindles, which they use to support a counter top. The home is now a showpiece, with only a watermark on the stairway door to remind them of the hip-deep flood that had ravaged their property.
“We’re very grateful for the generosity of the Salvage Barn,” Conner said. And, for their part, the FHP is equally grateful that the items they painstakingly remove from one home end up used and appreciated in another. It’s all part of the ethic of conservation that keeps members volunteering and the public donating, house after historic house.
FHP Director Helen Burford shows an antique for sale at the Salvage Barn. Photo: Julia Wasson
“The Salvage Barn is one of the reasons why Iowa City is a special place,” says FHP Director, Helen Burford. “It is full of treasures that never cease to inspire homeowners, builders, architects and even artists to reuse or find new ways to use beautiful materials.
“It may take a little effort, but beneath a coat of paint, the intricate metal designs or even the warmth of old, long-grained wood are easily revealed. Working with these materials is a rewarding experience, one that is very different from buying something new.”
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